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Wow, that outerra would be awesome, but sounds impracticle, too good to be true, for now, for ArmA. It would be cool tho if that technology could be applied to generate bumpmaps and grass with similar procedural qualities to fit that midrange gap.

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Well, I'm testing it. It looked pretty insanely good from the stuff I found on youtube. And yes there's always the tired old fanboy retort (and don't get me wrong I'm a fanboy too) of 'yeah but its not simulating x, y and z as well, which Arma does'. But nobody would be expecting the entire planet in an Arma game, so obviously through having a restricted map area you'd get a lot of cpu/ram/gpu resources back.

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I did only see some texured mountains. no objects no nothing.and he didnt zoom in, could be very low res too.

Didn't zoom in? What video were you watching? The camera bumps off rocks. Two clicks - one to Youtube, one to the thread he's linked to - will take you to the Outerra forums, where this video was originally posted. The static screens in there with vehicle models give a good idea of the scale.

No-one's saying "Yo BIS, Outerra's in ur base killin ur game engine". Nor criticizing BIS for not using Outerra. I think the post just demonstrates that fractal terrain geometry & good texturing: can be rendered real-time, and looks exquisitely good. It's something BIS everyone making a game engine that renders outdoors ought to aspire to, even if they rightly choose never to achieve it (there are better places to spend calculations before we get to terrain that finessed). I would love to play Arma on that terrain. I know I won't for a very long time. I'm ok with that, but it won't stop me dreaming.

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I agree this is very needed. Such bland mid-range textures were acceptable in A1, less so in A2, but they really shouldn't still be around in A3, especially since this is where a TON of action happens in these games - 150-350m away is prime firefight distance, yet that's where the engine suffers the most?

And while we're at it, there's another thread dealing with a related mid-/far-range rendering issue, except for how models are obscured by the grass:

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Don't understand a word of it but the screenies do all the talking I need... :bounce3:

And it means the 'other' (excellent) thread dealing with the distant grass issue would be unecessary (the fix, not the thread) as combining the effects would make the enemy practically invisible and the game perhaps too brutal to be enjoyed.

Also, hopefully the fact that Placebo noticed, and liked, the suggestion means that it'll get some serious consideration at ze BIHQ.

And anyway they must be rolling in Ferraris after the last 4 months of dominating the Steam charts. So, if they were just to sell the vile pink one, they could even get NordKindchen to do the job for them!

Really, really good stuff. Keep this thread alive.

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The idea would be to save time in creating the "medium-range logic map" to replace the current "mid-range overlay" which is now the blurry satellite image. A spectral classification of multiband satellite imagery would quickly generate an island-wide map of internally homogenous, spectrally distinct classes (say 20-50 in number), somewhat similar to his logic map. Each class would have distinct spectral characteristics based on (one method) maximum likelihood statistical analysis of each pixel in all spectral bands, based on the spectral variation between different landuse/landcover types.

For example, one class would be dense forest veg, one shallow water, one deep water, one grasses, one bushes + grass, some bare rock, some for bare soil, pavement, etc. Then medium-range textures could be developed and assigned to each class.

Perhaps BIS did this already in making the short-range logic map? It looks that way, but I don't know.

Another super easy way to generate the medium-range logic map would be to apply a focal majority filter to the short-range logic map to simplify it, and possibly reduce the number of classes in it.

All the above could be done in a few days for the entire island using the original multiband satellite image (probably Ikonos, Quickbird or something like that). We do this kind of thing for entire countries (example partial raw image base, pre-classification, 30m pixels). What I guess would take the most time would be generating the medium-range textures for each class, but I don't really know since I am a geophysicist, not a video game developer!

from what i understand, bis already has the logic map. and look at how detailed it is. every distinctly colored pixel will have its own tileable noise texture:

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And it means the 'other' (excellent) thread dealing with the distant grass issue would be unecessary (the fix, not the thread) as combining the effects would make the enemy practically invisible and the game perhaps too brutal to be enjoyed.

I disagree. I think both of these features should be implemented as they will compliment each other very well. They could quite possibly solve the problem of units being easier to spot from far range than at a close distance, for unmagnified optics. The brutality of it is the fun part.

Of course once magnification is introduced the balnance gets tipped. there will need to be further steps taken in order to make camoflauge and partial concealment possible against magnified optics. Speaking of which, is the range at which these mid range textures are rendered increased depending on the magnification that is being used?

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If that was aimed at me - I'm just saying it IS a game after all and I've played them all and loved them all but I'm no fan of taking things THAT far. I mean - do you quit when you die because that's real isn't it....? :j:

Still love the suggestions though. And I do feel that one of them is absolutely necessary.

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@-Coulum- currently the texture overlay for the mid range is as far as I can possibly see with my optics. So there shouldnt be a problem;)

@the question towards the performance: Its not totally clear but it seems it will have a rather small performance impact. Possibly even none? -> I mean - look at all those graphic options which dont change the framerate even if you turn them from "low" to "ultra". possibly the same here^^